Friday, November 1, 2013

Hoboken Revolt: 'Only the Zimmer Team holds the line on taxes'

Hoboken Revolt announces:

Zimmer Ticket is Only Group with Positive
Record of Holding the Line on Taxes

In
2008, Hoboken suffered an 87% municipal property tax increase due to years of
mismanagement and corruption. Hoboken Revolt, a citizens’ coalition, was subsequently
created to inform the public on what drove the tax increase and what could be
done about it.

Given
recent local election results, it cannot be overstated that every vote is
important. In addition, local elections affect your pocketbook more directly
than any other level of government. As part of our mission to inform and
urge participation, consider a few issues that will be determined by the
election this November 5:

Zoning
Board Appointments – Six of nine Zoning Board seats
are up for re-appointment in January. Mayor Zimmer led the successful effort to
give appointment authority back to the City Council, where it had been until former
Mayor Russo made the ill-fated change to provide the mayor this power in the
1990s.Taking sole power for zoning
appointments paved the way for bribes, which eventually resulted with Mayors
Russo and Cammarano in prison.Council candidates Jim Doyle, Dave Mello, and
Ravi Bhalla support Mayor Zimmer as do council members Jen Giattino and
Peter Cunningham on this issue.Together,
they constitute the majority needed to keep appointment authority out of the
hands of one person.

Vision
20/20 Must Be Properly Vetted - To date,
sufficient details have not been presented to either the public or the city
government to enable proper review of the Vision 20/20 project.It therefore lacks any transparency, which is
particularly alarming given that even according to Vision 20/20’s proponents,
it will double the size of the Hoboken Housing Authority (HHA).While council candidates Doyle, Mello and Bhalla have pledged
that they will not support this project until it has been fully disclosed and
vetted, their opposition dangerously have stated they will vote for approval
without further review.

Church
Towers and Marine View Plaza PILOTs Will Expire.

Although
Church Towers paid off its affordable government-housing loan, it still has an
agreement (PILOT) that limits its tax contribution to approximately one third
of what the building would otherwise contribute to city coffers. As the
building’s estimated tax assessment is roughly equal to 2% of the tax levy this
is a significant concern for taxpayers.

The PILOT for Marine View Plaza will also expire during
the next mayoral term. Hoboken needs a mayor and a council who will
consider these issues openly and carefully, and ultimately act in the best
interests of all Hoboken citizens.

Police
and Fire Department Contracts Will Be Renegotiated. Among Mayor Zimmer’s progress was making the HHA police a
separate department.Where previously
Hoboken’s police earned overtime pay for HHA duty, the HHA police now work at
regular pay. This is but one example of a
smart allocation of city resources.We
must ensure that such cost-saving measures—with no loss of safety for our city—along
with other recent concessions (including health care premium contributions)
remain following the next round of negotiations.